Property Surcharges Aim to Keep Outsiders Away

Governments want to limit foreign money coming into real-estate markets to rein in home prices

With its new residential-property tax on outsiders, Vancouver, British Columbia, is the latest locality trying to keep foreign buyers at bay. Tommy Li of Beijing is one of them.

Last year, he said, his wife quit her job to accompany their now-12-year-old son to study in Vancouver. Mr. Li, who works for a U.S. technology company, stayed behind to support them. They bought an apartment for 400,000 Canadian dollars (US$304,900) earlier this year that was still under construction.

After British Columbia announced that starting Aug. 2, it would charge an additional transfer tax of 15% of a property’s value to foreign buyers in Vancouver, Mr. Li needs to pay C$60,000 more.

“I understand where the policy comes from, since China’s own overheated property market has also created many problems,” Mr. Li said. “But we are not investors.”

The new tax is the latest move by governments from Singapore to Australia to try to limit the amount of foreign money coming into local real-estate markets to keep home prices from rising further.

But even as these measures proliferate, economists and others disagree about whether they are wise, or even effective.

Local policies such as the Vancouver tax may be blunted by global developments, including low interest rates that make for affordable mortgages, and, in China, a depreciating yuan and corruption crackdown that have made Chinese more eager to get their money out of the country.

“Even if you think about, say, a 15% tax on property-related transactions, that may not be enough to deter a wealthy Chinese official or businessman who feels that his money is at risk in China,” said Eswar Prasad, the New Century Chair in International Economics at Brookings Institution.

Also, it is difficult to say what impact the taxes have, because they often come as part of an array of measures that also can be responsible for shifts in housing prices.

Some people find work-arounds, real-estate agents say, such as putting the property in a relative’s name. And a tax on foreign buyers in one locale also could shift buying to another city. In Canada, some economists are warning the Vancouver tax move is likely to fuel more foreign buying to other cities including Toronto, where housing prices also have risen significantly.

In 2013 Singapore boosted to 15% from 10% the fee added to the purchase price of residential property bought by many foreigners, including Chinese. In Hong Kong, mainland Chinese and foreign buyers also face a 15% tax, which was introduced in 2012.

Home prices in both localities have begun to cool. But in Singapore, the government also took other steps to cool the housing market around the same time as the foreign-buyer tax.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, has increased minimum down payments and raised real-estate transaction taxes for luxury homes, among other moves—in addition to its tax for non-Hong Kong permanent residents.

After it introduced the cooling measures in 2012, transaction volumes tumbled by 70% in the following six months, government figures show, but prices continued to climb, setting new highs. That led to more taxes to thwart speculative home-buying by locals. The market started to soften last year, but has strengthened again this year after the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union led to expectations of more monetary easing globally.

Christy Clark, premier of British Columbia, has said the new tax, as well as a separate vacancy tax on properties left unoccupied, is aimed at keeping homes affordable. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said what it calculates as the benchmark price for a typical Vancouver home rose 33% in the year through July to C$930,400.

Some think the new rules can work. “Price appreciation was bound to decelerate anyway, given how lofty prices have become, and how unaffordable most of the Vancouver market had become,” said BMO Capital Markets’ economist Sal Guatieri. But “this will certainly add some cooling pressure.”

Ms. Clark said even if the new measure doesn’t deter foreign investors, the government would receive a boost in tax revenue that it intends to dedicate to affordable housing.

Others say the governments should focus not on who is buying the property, but whether they are contributing to the local economy.

Justin Fung, a member of a Vancouver group called Housing Action for Local Taxpayers, said he prefers a different approach than the one the government took. He backs proposals for a general property-tax surcharge that could be offset by a homeowner’s regional or national income tax.

“If you were going to work hard, earn your living here in the city, and you’re willing to do that, then you deserve to have an affordable home here,” said Mr. Fung, who works in technology and grew up in Vancouver.

Mr. Fung, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in Vancouver where he lives with his wife and their young daughter, said his family considered upgrading to a larger home in recent years but quickly changed their minds when they realized how much more they would need to pay for a house or larger condo unit in their part of the city.

“We actually ended up just getting priced out altogether,” he said.

As for Mr. Li, he said he will probably end up taking a larger mortgage and paying the tax, because he already made a down payment. Of Vancouver, he said: “I just want my son to have a place so that he can finish his studies.”

Write to Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com and Wei Gu at wei.gu@wsj.com